A Eulogy for Bugsy/a playlist.

Bugsy wasn't much of one for goodbyes. He'd regularly just disappear without a word to anyone. Maureen and Ron tell stories of him going missing on family outings to look at trains, Carole tells me he'd quite often go back to the car feeling tired during their shopping trips, and he'd even take a lucky dip into thin air when we were out at gigs. One time at the Caribbean Club in Basingstoke I'd assumed he'd done this but he'd just fallen asleep in the toilet and woke up surrounded by cleaning staff. That must have been confusing but I think he'd love having so many friends and family around him now. In the words of one of his favourites Bruce Forsyth - didn't he do well?

I have so many memories of Bugsy I could talk all night, and maybe will - but the ones I'd like to share with you aren't just mine - some are, others come from friends. He had a unique take on life and he's certainly the only man I ever met who spent his entire dole cheque on a horse mask, whipped the Purple Turtle crowd up with a rendition of the Terry & June theme while lobbing tomatoes at the audience, spent an entire party riding an exercise bike, kept his coat on for an entire weekend - mostly spent sleeping with five other blokes (myself, Shep, Adam, Rob, and Damon) in a Ford Transit van in Manchester, delivered a lengthy ode to a brown paper bag, tried to escape a fruitless game of dominoes at my parents house by climbing through the windows so as not to wake anyone, took Pritt Sticks down the pub, shaved in a wing mirror at festivals, balanced pint glasses on his head, and shoved pebbles in his belly button every time we visited the beach.

I'm not a believer in the afterlife - but Bugsy is wearing his jogging bottoms now just in case. He didn't want to risk eternity in a suit. If it does exist I'd like to think he's making music with Warren, doing Gazza impressions with Stuart, and laughing at Pat Still's ridiculous anecdotes. I just hope he doesn't have to cross a road to get there. I don't think I'll ever forget Bugsy's unique, and let's face it - ludicrous, road crossing technique.

 

Away from the important funny stuff Bugsy was a brilliant father to Dylan (imbuing in him a passion for quizzes, football, roller coasters, and darts) and the most caring friend you could wish to have. The most caring friend I could wish to have. He didn't waste a lot of time with small talk but he'd always have an anecdote from the old days, he loved nostalgia. Often it'd be about something seemingly innocent like a Grand Prix or a game of football but it soon became clear it was about much deeper stuff. Conversationally, according to Rob, I was Roy Keane to his Matt Le Tissier, grafting away in midfield to often little effect while he popped up with a jinking overhead kick that won Goal of the Season. We'd split people into categories of Ayrton Sennas and Riccardo Patreses and in hospital in April he said to me that I was the Senna to his Patrese. The loudmouth essentially to his quiet but mercurial genius. He wrote the scripts and I read them out, sometimes that seemed the dynamic but the truth was quite different.

He'd sometimes refer to himself as a background character but he was anything but that. You had to make an effort to get to know him - but that effort was always rewarded. I'd spent my entire youth wanting to be in a band and without Bugsy, and of course Ian and Shep, it wouldn't have happened. He was by far the most talented musician in the band and sometimes he'd be frustrated by mine and Ian's shenanigans. Doing gigs drunk, wearing nappies, not taking interviews seriously - but he's the one who insisted on coming on stage to the It's a Knockout theme tune and decorated his guitar with photos of Brian Clough.

They were fun times. We were young. We opened our friendship group up to new and lasting influences and we had adventures. Looking back the band seems like a social club but it was a matter of great passion for all of us. But it wasn't just the band Bugsy had passion for. That carried through into everything he did. He could be passionate talking about old Beezer annuals, Celebrity Squares, the Vic 20 computer, or even something as simple as a game of Guess Who? He loved his time in Australia with Ian, Stuart, and Laura and his trip to Pakistan with Ben from which he brought me back a rather dubious bottle of vodka. At Ben and Tracy's wedding his best man speech had people in tears. It was hardly a one off performance.

Much as Bugsy was loved and we're here today to celebrate him and his life I'd like to say thanks to a few people who made his life much easier. Friends and family. Shep and Laura, Tony and Alex, Darren and Cheryl, Natalie, Margaret, Jim, Natalie, Tina and Neil, Rob and Naomi, Damon, Ian, Debs, Caroline, Angela, Ed, Elaine, Adam and Teresa, Ben and Tracy - all absolute stars. To Neil and David, his brothers and to his mum and dad Maureen and Ron too. Most of all to Carole whose arrival in Bugsy's life provided him with the love and affection he deserved. She never wanted to go on any of Bugsy's bloody rollercoasters but had to go on quite a harem-scarem journey in the end and to Dylan who loved rollercoasters and whose kind and sweet nature will be a far better and longer lasting testament than anything I can say here today

Even more, I'd like to thank Bugsy himself. A man who once claimed, unironically, he wished he had a nickname. Not only did he provide a language for understanding life, he articulated it with a dark surreal humour that appealed to me and many others who loved him. Sometimes you'd barely get a grunt out of him. Other times he could wax lyrical for hours on end about any subject under the sun and have tears streaming down our cheeks. Behind all those jokes, all that silliness, struck a heart of gold. A man so kind that even in his final days his first concerns were about the welfare of his visitors. Not only did Bugsy show us how to live in our own unique way, unchecked by conventions or norms (take a look what he ate and how he dressed at Adam and Teresa's MM parties) he also showed us how to face the ultimate adversity with an almost superhuman, but actually very very human, dignity. I'm sure I'm not the only one but he coloured, shaded, and influenced my life in so many different ways that by the time I join him, I still won't have been able to count them all.

 

I said earlier he wasn't big on goodbyes and he preferred to slope off into the distance, often totally unaware of the impact he'd had on any given situation, but (and this feels like a breach of protocol) he's getting a goodbye today. I think he'd want it. I think he'd want as much laughter as there are tears and in fact he even said it. When Bugsy was in hospital he offered Ian two pieces of advice. Both of which, I think, are equally relevant. Firstly he said if you're feeling ill go to the doctor, go to the hospital, get yourself checked. He very probably saved his own dad's life doing this. Secondly, and this is the note I'd like to end on, he said "don't be sad. Enjoy yourself".

It's not easy at the moment but please try and carry that message forward with you. Don't be sad. Enjoy yourself.

Thankyou

PLAYLIST

Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
Ricardo Bugsy - Piers End
New Order - Ceremony
New Order - True Faith
New Order - Regret
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Joy Division - Transmisson
Joy Division - Shadowplay
Chas n Dave - Margate
Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400
KLF - Last Train To Trancentral
Blondie - Atomic
Modern Romance - Best Years Of Our Lives
The Who - Love Reign Over Me
Vengaboys - We Like To Party
Pet Shop Boys - Opportunities
Boney M - Daddy Cool
Spandau Ballet - Gold
The Specials - Ghost Town
Chris De Burgh - A Spaceman Came Travelling
Bananarama - Cruel Summer
Trinidad Oil Company - Calendar Song
The Motors - Airport
Eddie And The Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do
Fad Gadget - Back To Nature
The Prodigy - Breathe
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
Depeche Mode - Dreaming Of Me
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
House Of Love - Destroy The Heart
Primal Scream - Velocity Girl
Fun'Da'Mental - Wrath Of The Blackman
Cypress Hill - Insane In The Brain
Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness
The Godfathers - I Want Everything
The Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
The Carpenters - Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
The Carpenters - Close To You
The Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays
Hot Chocolate - It Started With A Kiss
David Bowie - London Boys
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy
The Seers - Don't Bring Me Down
Bob Marley - Stir It Up
Bob Marley - Could You Be Loved?
Rage Against The Machine - Know Your Enemy
Run DMC - You Be Illin'
Radiohead - Creep
Blur - Advert
Earth Wind and Fire - September
Billy Bragg - Levi Stubbs Tears
Embrace - Come Back To What You Know
Status Quo - Pictures of Matchstick Men
John Shakespeare - Terry and June
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile
The Doors - Love Her Madly
Inspiral Carpets - Saturn 5
Northside - Shall We Take A Trip?
Northside - My Rising Star
Flowered Up - It's On
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - Bean Bag
Planet Funk - Chase the Sun
Cloth - Swedish Houses
Cloth - The Venn Diagram
The Stranglers - Walk On By
Faithless - Insomnia
Yazoo - Don't Go
The Assembly - Never Never
Erasure - Oh L'Amour
Erasure - Respect
Ronnie Hazlehurst - Some Mothers Do Ave Em
Richie Close - A Question of Sport
The Cascades - Rhythm of the Rain